Jovan Belcher, girlfriend had briefly separated

Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend briefly lived apart before he killed her and then committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager, a friend of the woman said yesterday.

But Brianne York, 21, said that Belcher and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, had gotten back together by Thanksgiving.

When she learned Saturday that Belcher had fatally shot Perkins at the couples’ home, York said, she thought someone must have been mistaken.

Afterward, Belcher drove about five miles to Arrowhead Stadium, where he thanked general manager Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel for all they’d done for him. Belcher then fatally shot himself in the practice facility’s parking lot, police said.

Belcher and Perkins have a 3-month-old daughter.

“They just don’t seem like they’re that kind of people,” said York, who met Perkins while taking prerequisite classes at the Blue River campus of the Metropolitan Community College. The women bonded during their pregnancies. York’s baby, a boy, was born about three months before Perkins’ daughter.

York recalled that her friend was “really happy about being a mom.”

“It doesn’t seem that that would be the end of their story,” York said. “It just seems like if things didn’t work out, they would have gone their separate ways. I would never have thought that this would be how it ended.”

York said the couple had argued about “normal couple stuff” and, sometime after Halloween, Perkins had gone to visit her family in Texas. Perkins also briefly stayed with her cousin, who is married to Chiefs player Jamaal Charles. Belcher and Perkins met through Charles, York said.

A message left for Charles and his wife through an assistant was not immediately returned.

York said the root of the argument was that Belcher, “sometimes he would just be down in his man cave or whatever,” and Perkins wanted to spend more time together as a family.

Initially, York said, Perkins told her that “they weren’t sure if they were going to be able to work things out and stay together.” But York said, “They ended up wanting to try to work it out, and the next time I went over and visited she told me everything was good and things were better, so I thought everything was fine.”

Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp reiterated yesterday that the couple had argued recently but he could provide no additional details.

At the couple’s former home, people could be seen coming and going yesterday.

“Can you all respect grieving?” said a man who answered the door at the couple’s home. A short time later, at the same time the Chiefs were playing the Carolina Panthers, two men loaded bags into a car, and two women drove away.

Attempts to reach various members of Perkins’ family in Austin, Texas, were unsuccessful.

Belcher’s mother, who was staying with the couple, called 911 after her son shot Perkins. Snapp said 911 tapes aren’t public records in Missouri.